Improvement in carding-engines



UNITED STATES Arnim* muon.

JOHN C. WHITIN, OF NORTHBRIDGE, MASSAGHUSETTS.

IMPROVEMENT IN CARDlNG-ENGINES.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 39,1%?, dated July 7,1863.

To v@ZZ whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, JOHN C. WHITIN, of Northbridge, in the county ofWorcester and State of Massachusetts, have invented'a new and usefulSelf-Stripping CottonCardin g Engine; and I do hereby declare that thefollowing is a correct description ofthe same, reference being had tothe accompanying drawings, making part of this specification, and to theletters ot' reference marked thereon, in which drawings- Figure 1 is asectional plan of my improved cotton-card. Fig. 2 is a side elevation ofthe same. Fig. 3 is a side elevation of a cottoncard with GeorgeVVelmans self-stripper attached. Fig. 4 is a side elevation of acottoncard with Gambrill 8v Burgees improvement attached.

The common way of carding cotton was by the use of narrow strips ofwood, called iiats77 or top cards, covered with fillet on one side, andfixed just outside the periphery ofthe cylinder. These top cards werestationary, and so adjusted as to card the cotton and catch the dirt asthe cylinder revolved. They soon became lled with imperfect seed, leaf,and other dirt from the cotton, and when in this state failed to do thecarding well 5 consequently they had each to be taken from the card andstripped with a hand-card by the operator about every fteen minutes. Thework by such cards must be uneven and imperfect, as the machine cardswell when the top cards are clean, and ill when filled with the refusetaken up from the cotton. Mr. George Wellman, of Lowell, invented andpatented a selfstripper which obviates these difficulties, and thecotton operated on by his self-stripper is uniformly carded. Messrs.Gambrill & Burgee, of Baltimore, patented a carding-engine, in whichthey have substituted workers and cleaners in the place of the topcards, and a small stripping-cylinder, with varyin g speed, acting attimes as a stripper of the main cylinder, and at other times as a feederto the main cylinder, according to the speed. The strippings by thisprocess are mixed with the partially-carded cotton and run through themachine, and more than double the amount of cotton can be run throughthese than the ordinary carding-engines. The objection is that too muchleaf and dirt is run through and in- 'to the sliver to make very goodwork, only the heaviest of the dirt, trash, Ste., being thrown olf bythe revolving cylinders of the Gambrill & Burgee card. By my arrangementI combine the advantages ot' the two improvements, and overctme theobjections to each of them. The Gambrill 8a Burgee stripping and feedingcylinders and the workers and cleaners so prepare the cotton, by cardingand opening it and keeping it at the periphery of the cylinder, that bythe time they reach the top cards the Wellman stripper efficientlyremoves the dirt and trash, particularly the light refuse, as pieces ofleaf' and imperfect seeds, having short fibers of cotton attached tothem, which would pass through the Gambrill & Burgee card without thiscombination. The Wellman card has to be stopped about every two hoursfor the purpose of stripping the cylinder by hand, because the cardingis Well done only When the cylinder is comparatively clean, but bycombining with it the cylinderstripper of Gambrill & Bur-gee thecylinder is kept nearly uniformly stripped, and the top flats are thusenabled to do more and better work and more effectually straighten thebers of cotton by laying them parallel With the sliver, the want ofwhich straightening in the Gambrill & Burgee card is an imperfection.

To enable others skilled in the art to make and use my invention, I willproceed to describe its construction and operation by explaining theannexed drawings.

A is the card-frame, B, the main cylinder 5 C, the doffer; D, thelap-roll; E, the feed-rolls; F, the licker-in; G, a feeder and worker. His the variable-motion cylinder, which when running at its highest speedstrips the main cylinder of the card. I J are Workers and cleaners, madein the-usual way. K are top cards. Sixteen of them are shown on thedrawings, but there may be any convenient number of them. These topcards are cleaned by the stripper patented by George Wellman aforesaid,and are shown as being driven by a pulley on the main cylinder-shaft,driving by a belt the pulley L at the top of the main arms X. On the'shaft with the pulley L are pinions M, one on each side of the card,driving stud-gears N, Which have pinions 0 on their hubs gearing intothe cam-gears P. The cam-gear P has an equal number of teeth with thepinions Q, made wider than the others to drive pinions Q one revolutionwhen the shoe It slides over the remainder of the circumference of thecam-gear till the long teeth strike the pinions Q again, when it isallowed to make another revolution, and the operation proceeds as before. Gears Q are on short shafts, having on their other ends pinionsS,whch gear into the racks T. rlhe pinions S travel over the rack oneway, and passing around the end return under the rack, carrying the mainarms X of the stripper, which turn on the boxes of the main cylinder.

1n the drawings the pinions S are shown over the rack T, with the mainarms at the center of one of the top cards, the top card being liftedand the cam U ready to draw the stripper in. One revolution of thepinions S carries the main arm from the center of one top card to thecenter of the next but one, and so on until it arrives at the end of therack, when the pinions S, passing under the rack, stop the main armsover the center of those top cards they missed when traveling` over therack. Short arms Y, turning on the hubs of the cam-gears P, allow thepinions S to swing for the purpose of traveling around the rack. Whenthe main arm X is stopping "Swat the center of the top cards, the camson the hack of the cam-gears P lift the top card and hold it up till thecam U on the outside of the camgear P draws the stripper on the arms Vunder the top card, when the cam allows the tcp card to drop slightly,and the stripper being withdrawn as the camgear revolves, strips the topcards more perfectly and uniformly than is done by hand.

I do not claim to have invented a cardingengine with top cards which isself-stripping, as that has been done by George Wellman, and patentedDecember 6, 1853, January 27, 1857, and others, nor the carding-engineof Gambrill 8a Burgec, with the varying cylinder for stripping the maincylinder, patented February 27, 1855, September l, 1857, and November17, 1857; but

That I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

Combining the self-stripper of Wellman with the cylinder stripper ofGambrill 85 Burgee, essentially as above described.

JOHN C. WHITIN.

Wii nesses P. WHITIN DUDLEY, HENRY B. Oseoon.

